Nokia Announces a Smart Phone with a 41-Megapixel Camera

What might be the most telling thing about the upcoming launch of the 808 PureView comes straight from Nokia’s blog. After going on about the brand new 41-megapixel camera for a few paragraphs, writer Ian Delaney writes “It’s also a smartphone.” The 808 PureView seems less like a phone with a camera attached than a camera with a phone attached.

Nokia’s new smartphone features a 41-megapixel image sensor – five times that of what’s typical on other phones. That’s a huge difference and it’s not just the kind of thing that only counts on paper. The Nokia Blog hosts a zip file with sample photos that are incredibly impressive.

Rather than just take oversized photographs, the 808 PureView uses this extra resolution to clean up smaller photos. If you’re looking for a picture that’s five megapixels large, for example, the PureView will oversample and sharpen your picture for the most clarity possible. Nokia says this also goes to improve low-light performance – something that’s typically bad on camera phones. Of course, if you prefer, you can still shoot at maximum resolution.

The 808 PureView will be coming out in May, but has only been announced in Europe at the moment.